Olympus Flag & Banner, Milwaukee, Wisc., recently changed its name to Olympus Group, reflecting expanded product offerings and consolidation of several divisions under one umbrella organization. In 2010, Olympus invested more than a million dollars to update its technology, expand 10,000 square feet at its headquarters and acquire several companies with complementary products and services. [...]

A Denver company manufactures high-quality tarps that can cost signficantly less than comparable products sold by competitors. What’s the secret? The tarps began life as large vinyl billboards and ended up at Repurposed Materials Inc., Denver, Co., instead of a landfill. The tarps are 20 mils thick and made of three-ply material, a polyester mesh [...]

Two providers of special event tents combined forces in January to create a full-service business for event production, large-scale clear span structures, tents and party rental products. Stuart Rental Company, Milpitas, Calif., has merged with Top Productions, Richmond, Calif., to offer the San Francisco Bay area more options and experience. The new Stuart Rental Co. [...]

Market Publishers Ltd., London, England, publishes a range of Textiles Intelligence reports on various markets and has just added five new reports to its list. These include: Fast Track: Should Questions about the Safety of PTFE Worry the Performance Apparel Industry? Nanotechnology in Performance Apparel: Using Small-scale Materials to Create Big Opportunities Performance Apparel Markets: [...]

Smart money has been invested in nanotechnology innovation, but estimating the actual monetary value of the benefits of nanotechnology has been tricky. The United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) commissioned Oakdene Hollins Research & Consulting to develop a toolkit with methods to calculate the value of nanotechnology. The toolkit allows governments, [...]

Water is essential to the textile business, and in China’s Shandong province, where one-sixth of the country’s manufacturers are located, the worst drought in 60 years is taking a toll. As water demand increases, the Chinese are being forced to confront lack of water management and regulation. “Not only excessive extraction of groundwater, but also [...]

The outlook for the Indian textile industry is stable in 2011, despite an appreciation of the value of the rupee against the U.S. dollar and a consequent dip in garment exports. Robust domestic demand for fabric and apparel, driven by India’s increased purchasing power, organized retail penetration and demographics, will keep textile manufacturers in a [...]

[Rainier Industries] Detroit, Mich., U.S.A. A 70-foot geodesic dome fabricated by Rainier Industries housed the Microsoft Windows 7 launch in New York City and served to entertain and educate the media about Microsoft’s new product. Fabricated with 600 denier polyester, the dome also included an interior liner so video imagery could be projected onto the [...]

[Fabric Images Inc.] Elgin, Ill., U.S.A. Fabric Images fabricated an abstract representation of an “iron stomach” as an exhibit for a pharmaceutical company promoting the debut of a new product at a trade show in Chicago, Ill. The client required a lightweight, collapsible solution that could be assembled and disassembled to use at various shows [...]

[Shanghai Taiyo Kogyo] Shanghai, China Shanghai Taiyo Kogyo created the Future Pavilion in the exhibition area of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China, with the theme,“dream inspires the future of cities.” Using PVC BACKLIT 7530 from Mehler Texnologies GmbH, the fabric membrane was stretched over two steel frames—a main structure and a secondary frame [...]